Remember the suit against Joyce Arthur from many months ago?

First, we are delighted to announce – to our existing and prospective clients, community partners, and our donors – that pro-choice activist Joyce Arthur’s lawyer, and now BC Supreme Court Madam Justice Russell, have said that serious allegations in Ms. Arthur’s 2009 publication, Exposing Crisis Pregnancy Centres in British Columbia, do not apply to our charity or either of our charity’s CPCs in Vancouver and Burnaby.

Second, however, we are disappointed with the court decision dismissing our defamation claim against Joyce Arthur and members of the Pro-Choice Action Network for their publication (the “report”). Ms. Arthur succeeded in having our case dismissed without her being required to prove the truth of any of the allegations in her report concerning crisis pregnancy centres. The report remains posted on the internet.

Our Board of Directors will take some time to consider whether to appeal the decision dismissing our lawsuit.

Read more here. Read LifeSiteNews’ coverage here.

It’s a real pity that CPCs have to occasionally defend themselves against these types of allegations, when they should be able to invest 100% of their time doing the good, pro-woman and pro-life work that they do:

Notwithstanding our Board’s decision on this important matter, we will continue to do what we do best – serve our clients.

For example, Jessica (not her real name), who came to us the day she planned to commit suicide. Her husband previously beat her to cause a miscarriage. He was now coercing her to abort their second child or he would beat her again. With our help and our shelter, Jessica and her daughter are both alive.

For example, “Melody”, whose unborn child was of mixed race, so her parents demanded she abort or forever be cut off from her family. They followed through. And then there is “Heather”, seeking help for post abortion grief, referred to us by an abortion clinic. And also “Ali”, a refugee needing prenatal services and material support.

To date, our modest charity has helped over 16,000 women in crisis.

Over at Maisonneuve is an article entitled “No Choice.” The authors, Andrea Bennett and Kim Fu, review the state of the pro-life movement. They have a lot to say and some of the information appears to be correct, but I thought I’d poke at two points they make.

It’s a long article. Feel free to read it yourself and note anything else of interest in our comments section.

1. Abortions capped at 24 weeks

According to the authors, “Strict physicians’ guidelines cap abortions at twenty-four weeks.” I know someone who looked for these guidelines last year. The poor guy spent weeks trying to find provincial and territorial physicians’ colleges’ guidelines on abortion and then more time trying to piece together what they generally “encourage.” A number of colleges admitted that they had no abortion policy at all. The CMA doesn’t have “strict” guidelines either.

The authors are wrong on this point.

And is the authors’ imaginary cut-off point of 24 weeks something to celebrate?  This is what a child looks like at 24 weeks, or six months. Even if you dismiss the argument that all humans, regardless of their age or stage of development, have inherent worth and dignity for simply being human beings, this ain’t no clump of cells. This is a child.

2. Crisis Pregnancy Centres are notoriously litigious

The authors claim “CPCs are also notoriously litigious.” As one of the very few lawyers in Canada who specializes in what I’ve come to loosely call “sanctity of human life issues,” I can assure the authors that CPCs are not litigious. To confirm what I already knew, I just ran a Google search. Little if anything pops up. On what are they basing this statement?

And excuse me as I howl with laughter at the thought of the centres being “notoriously litigious.” Yes, those crazy pro-lifers and their buckets of money – money collected from ye olde money tree in the parking lot. Money that they then throw at their team of lawyers. Lawyers they keep on retainer and on-call, to address any perceived slight. Yes, that sure sounds like the reality of non-profit and charitable organizations everywhere.

And to support their claim, they provide a single example.

Did the authors research and determine the number of Pregnancy Care Centres across the country? And then determine how long they’ve generally had their doors open? And then determine how many lawsuits have been launched by said centres in that period of time?

Who fact-checked this article? Or approved the use of the word “notorious”?

Check out the article for yourself and let me know what you think.

The comments from their boys are priceless:

Q: “What do you do for fun?

A: “Get beat up?”

The oldest son’s piece of advice: “Don’t turn your back on them for too long.”

What a cool family. Here’s more on the family and how they make it work.

According to the neighbour, since the boy isn’t “normal” like her kids and makes noise, his “non retarded body parts” should be donated to science and he should be euthanized.

This happened in Ontario.

Anyone else craving a culture of life? (Le sigh.)

This quote could apply to the work we do…

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth.

When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

— Thomas Sowell, (1930- ) Writer and economist

I just read about the Stepping Up program in this week’s issue of ChristianWeek. I’ve never heard of any other programming with a similar mandate. I’d love to see this replicated across this country:

In ministering over the years to teen moms, Rast says they realized that many of the fathers—contrary to the “deadbeat dad” stereotype—actually craved a relationship with their children and girlfriends.

“They’re crying out for somebody to give them just a bit of a step up to be there for their kids,” he says. “But they have no idea how to do it.”

When Morgan came onboard three years ago, Stepping Up was finally launched.

“The mantra of Stepping Up is stopping the cycle of fatherlessness,” says Morgan. “We want to see these guys connect with their children in a meaningful way, and help them gain meaningful employment, so they can sustain themselves and their young families.”

An Orlando abortion clinic ran by a controversial, unlicensed physician has outraged locals by offering discount abortions.

The Orlando Woman’s Center, which was shut down in June and had all of its equipment seized, has brazenly thrown its doors back open – and even more boldly, it has begun circulating coupons for bargain-basement abortions on Sundays.

The coupons offer a $50 discount for abortions performed on Sundays.

If you’re pregnant, worried and a little overwhelmed and not sure what to do, there are people who are available and happy to help you. The fine people at the Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services can help you find a pregnancy care center near you. You can call them toll free at 1.866.845.2151.

I chuckled when I read this paragraph:

Hey, it may sound nuts to me to give up the most creative project of all – baby-making – to write blogs and bake, but then that’s me. Who am I to judge? I am one of those rare pro-lifers who doesn’t believe in forcibly impregnating women with the seed of country music singers and Republican senators and replacing all their highfalutin’ books with Bibles and recipes. I know most of you are totally into that, but hey, not me.

It comes from an interesting commentary by Kristen Hatten on childlessness in America.

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Andrea adds: Lots of good lines in this light-hearted commentary on a serious subject. I like this one: “Young people are being taught to share the highlight reel of their lives via Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and kind of marvel at their own brand.”

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Faye adds: I marvel at Andrea’s Facebook brand.